In the past one week, after the Karur stampede, both the AIADMK and the BJP refrained from commenting against Vijay. While the NDA delegation headed by Hema Malini, which visited Karur, said the administration was solely responsible for the crowd crush, former minister Anurag Thakur wrote to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin and urged him to take complete charge of the situation. But Vijay did not respond to calls from the BJP and the AIADMK.
“We are not able to get allies, as our leader is not willing to accommodate the AIADMK rebels and the factions who had walked out of the party. So he is trying hard to get Vijay into the alliance. The BJP too is trying to use the opportunity so that we can tap all the anti-DMK and the anti-incumbency votes,” said a senior AIADMK leader in Chennai on conditions of anonymity.
Palaniswami’s meeting with Amit Shah last month was inconclusive. While Delhi did not insist for a unified AIADMK, sources say, Shah insisted on retaining Dhinakaran’s AMMK and O. Panneerselvam in the NDA. Apparently, the NDA in Tamil Nadu, which secured 18 per cent votes under former IPS officer K. Annamalai, had withered after the AIADMK rejoined the alliance.
After the AIADMK walked into the NDA in April this year, OPS had quit the alliance and Dhinakaran also moved out saying he cannot accept Palaniswami as the chief minister candidate. In 2021, the AIADMK-BJP alliance lost 23 seats in the south because Dhinakaran’s AMMK ate into the AIADMK vote bank. Dhinakaran scored 10.57 lakh votes in the 2021 elections, spoiling AIADMK’s victory in the south. Though AMMK’s vote share reduced from 21 lakh in 2019 to 10 lakh in 2021, his performance in Theni in the 2024 elections added strength to the NDA.
Panneerselvam, popularly known as OPS, runs an outfit called AIADMK Cadre Rights Retrieval Committee. Though he had quit the NDA, sources say that he is in touch with Annamalai who had promised to reunite the NDA and bring back OPS and Dhinakaran. OPS had alleged that the BJP State president Nainar Nagendran refused to pick up his calls and this led to him walking out of the NDA.
PMK, which was one of the major alliance partners of the NDA in 2024, is vertically split with the father and son locking horns. However, Palaniswami, popularly known as EPS, called on senior Ramadoss who is admitted to a private hospital in Chennai due to heart ailment. EPS had a friendly chat with Ramadoss and his family members, including his daughter Gandhimathi. While Stalin also met Ramadoss to enquire about his health, EPS calling on the 86-year old leader assumes significance as the AIADMK did not reach out to either the father or the son, after their fallout.
While Palaniswami is stubborn that he will not take back the rebel leaders including K.A. Sengottaiyan who recently insisted on a unified AIADMK, national BJP vice president and Tamil Nadu election in-charge Baijayant Panda and other senior leaders in the state on Tuesday called on EPS at his residence in Chennai. Newly appointed co-in-charge and Union minister Murlidhar Mohol also called on EPS along with Baijayant panda. The BJP high command had assigned Mohol with the crucial task of strengthening the party’s poll machinery in Tamil Nadu.
According to sources, the meeting was to intensify the coordination among the NDA partners in the state and also strategise for the upcoming 2026 election. Party insiders say that the meeting between EPS and the BJP leaders was cordial and the leaders discussed joint campaigning and preparing for seat sharing for the assembly polls.
During the meeting, Nainar Nagendran personally invited EPS to be part of BJP’s people outreach programmes which is all set to begin on October 12. Nagendran will be launching his rally from Madurai on October 12. The idea of inviting EPS for the campaign rally was to make sure that the AIADMK and the BJP throw a unified face to fight the ruling DMK. It is said that the BJP is planning to expand its seat share in the NDA, while the AIADMK wants to hold its leadership position in the party.
The meeting is considered a prelude to EPS’s next meeting with Shah in Delhi. Also the dialogue between the BJP leaders and EPS is likely to continue in the coming weeks to discuss campaign themes and coordination among the party workers in every assembly segment.